A follower has brought forward some questions I feel would be beneficial to share with everyone:

Q1: Do you have the feeling that the Quebec police or other police have lied to you ? Or do you believe that police have always said the truth about that matter?

A1: I have the feeling that the Quebec Police have their reasons for keeping the truth from me, and their reasons can be separated into three categories:

1. In the most positive sense, they have an interest in solving the case; and sharing too much information with me could potentially damage any ability to solve it.

2. In a negative sense, they may have reasons for withholding information that could potentially embarrass them.

3. In the EXTREME NEGATIVE sense, the police may be withholding information that could potentially compromise them, or even implicate them in the case: It has long been suggested that possibly the police were involved in Theresa’s death; either through their association with criminals, or perhaps because some of them were criminals themselves. The evidence here is anecdotal (hearsay), there is no documented evidence of this.

Q2: Is it true that someone has suggested to exhume her body….and why?

A2: The idea of exhuming my sister’s body has been suggested on several occasions. The reasons are to examine whether there might still be trace DNA evidence that can only be examined by today’s standards. My family is ok with it, we have given our approval anytime any agency should wish to conduct it. One SQ officer wanted to do the exhumation examination, but he couldn’t get the SQ to pay for it. Alternatively we tried to raise money for a private laboratory to do an examination of the remains, but we could never get enough money together to do it, and no one would do it for free.

Kim Rossmo was one of the first officers to warn that a serial killer could be responsible for the disappearance of women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.(The Magazine of Simon Fraser University)

A renowned criminologist who warned the Vancouver Police Department that a serial killer might be at work while women went missing in the Downtown Eastside is scheduled to testify Tuesday at the missing women inquiry.

Kim Rossmo, a geographic profiler who was on the force at the time, was part of a working group formed as public pressure mounted for police to solve cases of missing sex workers.

In 1998, he and another officer were preparing to issue a news release that said, in part: “The objective of this group is to determine if a serial murderer is preying upon people in the Downtown Eastside and, if so, what murders and disappearances are linked together.”

It would have marked the first time Vancouver police had publicly acknowledged the possibility of a serial killer, but just two weeks before the news release was scheduled to be issued, it was scrapped by the head of the force’s major crimes section and the working group was disbanded.

Systemic failures

In a brief address prior to the opening of the inquiry Tuesday, commissioner Wally Oppal compared the Pickton investigation to other serial killer cases including Clifford Olson, Ted Bundy and Gary Ridgway, known as Green River Killer.

Even though the cases spawned their own investigations and inquiries, Oppal said the same problems keep cropping up — issues of leadership, morale and resources within the policing community.

Oppal said he has to ask himself what he can do differently if previous reports failed to affect change.

Oppal said his final report will examine the systemic failures in the policing environment, including the relationship between police and the victims, and the failures in the organization itself.

Report due in June

Pickton wasn’t arrested until February 2002, five years after his name first surfaced as a suspect in the disappearance of sex workers in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, when officers showed up at his Port Coquitlam farm with a search warrant related to illegal firearms and stumbled upon the belongings and remains of missing women.

Pickton was convicted in 2007 of six counts of second-degree murder, but the remains or DNA of 33 women were found on his farm. He claimed to have killed a total of 49 women. He is currently serving a life sentence.

Rossmo, now a professor at Texas State University, invented a technique of tracking crimes that is used around the world. He was the first Canadian police officer to get a PhD in criminology.

The missing women inquiry, headed by Oppal, is examining why Vancouver police and the RCMP failed to catch Pickton in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and why prosecutors declined to pursue an attempted murder charge against him after an attack on a sex worker in 1997.

Yes, I guess this is cause for celebration. I find the whole thing bitter-sweet. So we are awarding a scholarship on June 10th to a deserving student in the amount of $200 (hey, it’ll pay for some books!). It will be awarded at their graduating awards ceremony. I have been invited to attend (to have a seat at the “head- table”)… I am debating attendance.

On the one hand, I feel it is a landmark and I should be there; on the other, this maybe should be treated as no-big-deal… I’m a little tired of turning these affairs into press events that call attention to the case, that invite further intrusion into my life, that ultimately traumatize me to a point I am now long past.

And the third hand… Pierre Boisvenu has stated he will be there to support the whole affair: that is an honor I don’t quickly turn down. Pierre is one of my closest soul-mates… any opportunity to reconnect with him is time well spent.

So I sit and consider.

And a forth hand… here’s what’s also in the balance. I had a wonderful day with my daughters. We walked the dog (twice), discovered a box turtle. Swung on the rope over the creek, trampolined, and are set for grilling burgers and dogs for dinner. I have three lovely daughters, I don’t want to upset the wonder of our relationship.

A man arrested as a suspect in the death of 10-year-old Jolène Riendeau was being questioned by investigators Friday evening, several hours after his arrest in one of the most high-profile cases to be handled by Montreal police.

The question of whether the man, described only as a Montrealer in his 40s, will be charged Saturday with causing the girl’s death or walk away a free man remained unanswered Friday.

The man was arrested in the morning and brought to the east-end headquarters of the Montreal police majorcrimes squad in the Place Versailles shopping mall. He was questioned as a suspect in Jolène’s death two days after police revealed they located the remains of the girl who went missing in Point St. Charles on April 12, 1999.

Also on Friday, Jolène’s parents, Dolores Soucy and René Riendeau, dealt with the certainty of their daughter’s death as they began to plan a fitting tribute to a girl whose unsolved disappearance stuck in the minds of many for a dozen years.

Pina Arcamone, head of Quebec’s Missing Children’s Network, said Friday that even though Jolène’s parents moved away from the Point long ago they plan to hold Jolène’s funeral in the neighbourhood where she was raised and last seen alive.

After she was reported missing in 1999, a friend of Jolène’s told police she saw her eating chips outside a convenience store on Charlevoix St., six blocks from her home. It was the last time she was seen alive.

“They are focused. They know the tribute they want to pay to their daughter. They want to make this a very special occassion for Jolène and the many people who supported them over the past 12 years,” Arcamone said.

“It is very important and they are taking pride in what they are doing for their daughter. Some parents go in different directions after a tragedy like this. But this is a family that has remained strong in the past 12 years.”

Arcamone said Jolène’s parents were informed the provincial coroner might release her remains on Monday. If that happens, a funeral in Point St. Charles will likely be held later in the week. Arcamone, who has been helping the family deal with their loss, said Jolène’s parents remained resilient despite what they were put through in the space of three days.

“This is a family that has been searching for the past 12 years. They’ve clung to the hope that their daughter was alive. And within the last 72 hours it has been overwhelming. Wednesday was very, very difficult for the family and on Thursday they were making the funeral arrangements. Then news came (Friday) morning of an arrest in the case. So it has been overwhelming,” she said. “Through it all, I have to say, they are keeping really strong. They are very courageous.”

The Gazette has learned the suspect is a 47-year-old man who was charged in 2001, in Montreal court, with sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl. A year later, he pleaded guilty to sexual assault, sexual touching and inviting a minor to touch him in a sexual manner. He was sentenced to a 20-month prison term and 3 years of probation. As part of the same case, he was convicted of assaulting an adult woman and received the same sentence.

In 2009, he was charged, in Montreal court, in two separate cases that are still pending. In one, he is charged with assaulting a woman in 2009. In the other, he is alleged to have threatened, forcibly confined and sexually assaulted a woman in 2007. He was granted a release, shortly after he was charged, by agreeing to follow a series of conditions.

The Montreal police tried to keep a lid on information getting out while the man was questioned Friday, a matter Sgt. Ian Lafrenière described as “crucial to the investigation.” Lafrenière said Jolène’s remains were found in Montreal but wouldn’t specify where or when.

“It is a jagged edge for us,” he said. “We don’t want to compromise a court appearance. That’s why we are keeping some information to ourselves. Honestly, I know I’m holding back a lot of information. In 12 years as a spokesperson I think it’s the first time that I’m doing it (to this degree). But in this case it is so important. We don’t want to miss this one. We’ve been investigating this for 12 years.”

Lafrenière said the man arrested Friday was not the person who led police to Jolène’s remains. “What we can say is that it is someone who is wellknown to the police. Earlier in the week, when we announced we had found the body and that the case was a homicide, we said we were on a serious trail. That trail led us to this man. We hope this leads to him being arraigned.”

Lafrenière said another reason why police are keeping a tight lid on information is that investigators must be able to differentiate between someone who knows intimate details about the homicide and someone who is merely repeating what they might have heard through the media.

In the Jolène case, he said, false tips caused the police to search the Lachine Canal twice and to use large construction equipment, a few years ago, to break up cement at an undisclosed location.

What followed was one of the largest missing child searches in Quebec history.

Officers scoured the city, following up on more than 1,500 tips – including one that led them to the Lachine Canal.

In 2005, the level of the waterway was lowered to allow divers to search.

Just last year, age-enhanced photos of Jolene were released in an effort to trigger new clues.

Through it all, Jolene’s mother never gave up hope.

“I remember the contractions, I remember raising her for 10 and a half years, and she was taken away from me, and now I’m supposed to forget? It’s not going to happen,” Jolene’s mother, Delores Soucy, said in 2010.

If there’s someone who understands her pain, it’s Michel Surprenant.

His daughter Julie was also abducted in 1999, a few months after Jolene.

She’s still missing.

“It’s positive because it’s the end of the anguish, but it’s very emotional.,” Surprenant said on Wednesday.

Montreal police say they have a strong suspect on their radar and are confident an arrest will be made in the coming days.

I did a telephone interview today with a reporter with Avis de Recherche, an online video station about Canadien crime (ya… after 8 months my French was REALLY rusty… I am re-inspired by one of my daughters, Theresa who has announced that she will take French in middle-school). Story will be posted in the next 2 months.

Another interview request! Someone from Northern Mysteries, a documentary TV series about unsolved mysteries, wants to do a story on Theresa (what is in the water?). Though I did have to correct her on the assumption that Theresa is missing (No, no… found, and very much DEAD).

There is a general consensus that my voice has been very much missed (I’m touched! Thanks guys!). Nice to be back in the game.

I will post something on what I’ve been up to in the past 8 months; in time, I’m still processing.

That advice from Kim Rossmo on an aborted attempt to link my sister’s murder with Quebec serial killer William Patrick Fyfe.

William Fyfe

It went like this: I post a memorial to the death of Jim Clench, bassist for April Wine. A friend of Jimmy’s, who also knew Fyfe as a kid sends me an email: Did I ever stop to consider that Fyfe may have murdered Theresa Allore? I say, yes-yes… I investigated that, I ruled him out, but I can’t remember why, let me think on it a bit. I spend the next two days falling down a rabbit hole of suspicions and investigation.

Boy, the first 48 has been terrific…

Apparently Fyfe had been arrested in the Eastern Townships of Quebec as early as 1975-77 for driving a stolen vehicle. Also, despite news reports indicating that Fyfe committed his first murder in 1979, it is alleged that he actually committed murders as early as 1978, which would put him in the target area of Theresa’s murder.

So, a serial killer who operated in Montreal’s West Island (where my family grew up), who had cause to travel to the Eastern Townships (where my sister went to college and was found murdered), and who had committed murder as early as 1978 (when Theresa died).

And that’s how it goes. On the one hand, this is what happens when I go back to my normal life: I forget things. On the other hand – and I preface this by saying I received immediate response from Kim and Paul and Kristian – I am extremely fortunate to have good friends in my corner looking out for my interests.

Translation of Pierre Hugues Boisvenu’s press conference this morning on the Conservative agenda for crime and crime victims. I must say I am impressed. I has done exactly what he said he would do, and in short time. And I agree, the Bloc has been nothing but a political gadfly: No ideas, no road to lead us out of this mess. Bravo:

• Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Thank you for coming.

• I would like to especially thank the invited guests for their presence and their support in this announcement.

• I am very proud to be here today, as a member of this government that believes, like most Canadians, that our correctional system and our parole system must first take into account the security of our population.

• Like them, I am a proud member of this government who, when he was elected for the first time, promised Canadians might adopt an approach different from that of the previous government. When the Bloc says that our government has a hidden agenda on justice and public safety, I always ask myself where was the Bloc in the last two election campaigns?

• We believe that the public wants the punishment of serious offenders to match the seriousness of their crimes, and that the rights of Victims should have priority over the rights of criminals.

• Victims have expectations and want the government to keep its promises, particularly those of
making our neighborhoods safer and to keep dangerous criminals in prison.

• Canadians demand more rigor in the rehabilitation of criminals and the recognition of the right of victims to speak. This is what we do. The victims have a voice in Parliament, and it is good.

• I am pleased to announce that our government continues to fulfill its promises. Today, we have presented an important bill to amend the principles of the Corrections Act and the setting of conditional release, and thus put an end to the automatic advanced release of criminals, and increase the effort of rehabilitation.

• I remind you that all the measures announced today are the measures I have advocated as president founder of AFPAD.

• The bill aims to ensure that a single principle will override all others in the present correctional system, including decisions related to parole release: “THE PROTECTION OF THE COMPANY”.

• The “protection of society” will become the principle directive and the fundamental objective of the correctional system and parole system. Victims will express themselves more and our cities safer. I
recall that one of the first principles of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the right to security. We will show that principal respect.

• In the present system the criminals get a break in early parole through the review process. To explain,

• Criminals who have committed non violent crimes may get parole after serving sixth of their sentence, and parole after the third of their sentence. Therefore, a thief, a drug dealer, or someone who commits fraud is likely to be met by a victim on the street sooner, much sooner. This situation frustrates judges and police officers working hard to remove these criminals from circulation.

• Even if the Parole Board believes that the criminal is likely to reoffend, it is obligated to grant freedom.

• Under the current system, a criminal sentenced to twelve years prison is almost automatically delivered into semi-freedom into a community after only two years of incarceration, and given full parole after only four years.

• The public wants change and that is what our Government is committed to.

• The legislation would also ensure that the courts intend to force these criminals to repair the harm caused to their victims. The possible imposition of penalties tougher for these criminals is only part of the solution.

• The legislative measures our government has presented will eliminate the accelerated review so that offenders serve a larger portion of their sentence in prison before they are eligible for early release.

• To further analyze these early-release cases, our government will increase the number of permanent Commissioners from 45 to 60.

• Additional modifications will be made to the Corrections Release Act to confirm that the primary purpose of the Corrections and Parole systems is foremost the protection of the population.

• This bill is consistent with the principals of the Service Review Committee CSC, established by our government in 2007 to reform the prison system.

• We have made a commitment and we will respect it today. We ensure that offenders will assume greater responsibility towards their rehabilitation.

• The proposed amendments introduce a Parole merit system. The changes proposed by our government will also allow police to arrest without warrant any offenders who appear to not respect their conditions of parole.

• Finally, the changes proposed by our government demonstrate that the rights of victims are the real priority.

• Victims should be heard, in particular, in the correctional process. The bill presented today will allow victims to have a voice. For example, the right to participate in the VAC Board Hearings and to make statements will be enshrined in this Act; Victims will have access to information on the temporary absence with escort and transfer of offenders; Victims may obtain information on the participation of an offender in rehabilitation programs; Victims will know if an offender has been found guilty of serious breaches of discipline in a correctional institution.

Finally, as requested by the AFPAD, we announce creation of a National Advisory Committee on matters relating to victims, which will be co-chaired by the Ministers of Public Safety and Justice Canada.

• Ladies and gentlemen, our government has promised Canadians that new approach would be adopted with respect to the correctional system and to make public safety a priority, to require criminals to meet their commitments, acts and to recognize the rights of the true victims of crimes.

• Help and support for victims rests with the provinces. We need to remind the critics of our Government from the Bloc Quebecois of this fact.

• We can reaffirm that no other Government has gone so far in recognizing the primary rights of Victims Of Crime over the rights of criminals.

This site is about the unsolved murder of Theresa Allore who died November 3, 1978 in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. If you have any information please contact her brother John Allore, johnallore(at)gmail (dot)com